Facebook tests ‘News’ feature, Lyft offers rides to job interviews and doctor visits, and YouTube’s 20M trees campaign

Good morning, PR pros:

Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the banner ad, which started with AT&T’s ad on former publication HotWired (now Wired), which read: “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will.”

AdAge reported:

… AT&T’s ad lured 44 percent of readers to click, a miracle click-through rate by today’s standards. The click led to a landing page with links to webpages for museums like Paris’ Musée d’Orsay, and, naturally, a link to more information about AT&T.

However, today’s banner ad gets a click-through rate of roughly 0.5%, partially because the average consumer is faced with 1,700 banner ads every month. Given the sea of content and branded messages bombarding consumers’ attention, marketers must be even more innovative with their tactics.

There’s room for improvement—along with budget dollars to support experimentation. This is especially important as chief marketing officer roles are rolled into executive communications positions, putting PR pros in charge of finding ways to break through the noise.

AdAge reported: